Gender Equality

Girls play multiple roles in the household, society and the economy. They go to school, help with housework, work in factories, make friends, care for elder and younger family members and prepare themselves to take on the responsibilities of adulthood. Upholding the rights of the girl child has seen increased support through the nearly global adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as through the UN Millennium Development Goals target of increasing equality between girls’ and boys’ educational attainment. Though life for the girl child is steadily improving, many are still subjected to horrific practices. While child labour is an infringement of the rights of all children – boys and girls alike – girls often start working at an earlier age than boys, especially in the rural areas where most working children are found.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) defines Child labour as hazardous work, demands too many hours, or is performed by children who are too young. Child labour is one of the most monumental issues in Nigeria, a country with a developing economy, affecting a large portion of the country’s children up to age 17. A joint report issued in February by Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) along with several other organizations opine that more than half of Nigeria’s 79 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 are put to work, including in hazardous conditions and about 30% of child workers do not even receive compensation.

Furthermore, the 2020 International Labor Organisation report states that the main reasons for the emergence of girl child labour in countries like Nigeria are unhealthy family life and economic deprivation. Families strained by financial difficulties cannot cope with the increasing demands of their children and sometimes even fail to provide them with adequate nutrition. This appears to be the reason children look for their sources of income. In socially disadvantaged, alcoholic or morally bankrupt families, pecuniary challenges are often coupled with destructive dynamics in the relationships. These factors combine to spur children into the street, temporarily or permanently, leading them to a vagrant existence, required too early to make independent decisions. Economic hardships and family dysfunction can therefore be named as the main causes of child labour.

For a Girl child, the consequences of child labour are staggering because they oftentimes result in extreme bodily and mental harm, and even death. It can lead to slavery and sexual or economic exploitation. And in nearly every case, it cuts children off from schooling and health care, restricting their fundamental rights and threatening their futures. Trafficked children are often subjected to violence, abuse and other human rights violations. And some may be forced to break the law, while for most girls; the threat of sexual exploitation looms large.

Although there are a lot of social programs and established policies claiming to address child labour in Nigeria yet there are policy gaps that exist that hinder efforts to address child labour and lack of evidence to address all relevant worst forms of child labour (Bureau of International Labour Affairs, 2019). According to ILO (2020), the basis of the elimination of the worst forms of child labour within a relatively short time frame must be legislation, which keeps the total elimination of child labour as the ultimate goal of policy, but which explicitly identifies and prohibits the worst forms of child labour to be eliminated as a matter of priority. Such legislation must also provide adequate sanctions for violators and adequate compensation for victims, and be rigorously and impartially enforced.

For a country which has an alarming number of child labour, a review of the legal framework of child labour which should include pertinent issues surrounding the worst forms of child labour especially those relating to girls be encouraged. Also, mechanisms enforcing existing protections for children be created and strictly enforced with proper coordinating bodies carrying out their mandates as intended.

Speak Wednesday is an initiative of the Centre for Family Health Initiative (CFHI) to address issues around gender-based violence and gender bias. Join us every Wednesday on all our social media platforms for more interesting episodes.